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Our  Nation's  Peril 


Social  Ideals  and   Social  Progress 


BY 


LEWIS    G.   JANES 


Director  of  the  Cambridge  Conferences;  former  President  of  the  Brooklyn 

Ethical  Association ;  late  Lecturer  on  Sociology  and  Civics  in  the 

School  of  Political  Science,  Brooklyn,  N.Y. ;  Author  of 

"  Evolution  of  Morals,"  "  Life  as  a  Fine  Art," 

"  Cosmic  Evolution  as  Related  to 

Ethics,"  etc.,  etc. 


BOSTON 
JAMES    H.   WEST    CO.,    PUBLISHERS 

79   Milk   Street 
1899 


Our  Nation's  Peril 


Social  Ideals  and  Social  Progress 


BY 


LEWIS    G.    JANES 


IV 


Director  of  the  Cambridge  Conferences;  former  President  of  the  Brooklyn 

Ethical  Association ;  late  Lecturer  on  Sociology  and  Civics  in  the 

School  of  Political  Science,  Brooklyn,  N.Y. ;  Author  of 

*'  Evolution  of  Morals,"  "  Life  as  a  Fine  Art," 

"  Cosmic  Evolution  as  Related  to 

Ethics,"  etc.,  etc. 


'  4'' 


BOSTON 
JAMES   H.  WEST   CO.,    PUBLISHERS 

79  Milk  Street 
1899 


The  American  Ideal. 

^'The  Fathers  who  created  the  Republic  .  .  .  grasped  not  only 
the  whole  race  of  man  then  living,  but  they  reached  forward  and 
seized  upon  the  farthest  posterity.  They  erected  a  beacon  to 
guide  their  children  and  their  children's  children  and  the  count- 
less myriads  who  should  inhabit  the  earth  in  other  ages.  Wise 
statesmen  as  they  ivere,  they  kneiv  the  tendency  of  prosperity  to 
breed  tyrants,  and  so  they  established  these  great  self-evident 
truths,  that  when  in  the  distant  future  some  man,  some  faction, 
some  interest,  should  set  up  the  doctririe  that  none  but  rich  men, 
or  none  but  white  men,  or  none  but  Anglo-Saxon  white  men  ivere 
entitled  to  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  hajjpiness,  their 
pjosterity  might  look  up  again  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
and  take  courage  to  renew  the  battle  which  their  fathers  began, 
so  that  truth  and  justice  and  mercy  and  all  the  humane  and 
Christian  virtues  might  not  be  extinguished  from  the  land :  so 
that  no  man  should  thereafter  dare  to  limit  or  circumscribe  the 
great  principles  on  which  the  tempde  of  liberty  teas  being  built. 

"Now,  my  countrymen,  if  you  have  been  taught  docti^ines 
conflicting  with  the  Declaration  of  Independence ;  if  you  have 
listened  to  suggestions  which  ivould  take  away  from  its  grandeur 
and  mutilate  the  fair  symmetry  of  its  proportions,  .  .  .  let  me 
entreat  you  to  come  back.  Return  to  the  fountain  whose  waters 
S2?ring  close  by  the  blood  of  the  Revolution.^' — Abraham  Lincoln, 
Lewiston  Speech,  August,  1858. 


Copyright,  1899, 
By  James  H.  West  Co. 


OUR   NATION'S    PERIL: 

SOCIAL  IDEALS  AND  SOCIAL  PROGRESS. 


THE  kinship  of  man  to  the  lower  animals  is  now  a  generally- 
recognized  deduction  from  the  doctrine  of  evolution.  The 
study  of  the  genus  homo,  and  of  particular  individuals 
included  in  the  genus,  now  proceeds  with  due  recognition 
and  use  of  the  comparative  method.  Not  only  has  this  method 
proved  fruitful  in  the  investigation  of  human  anatomy  and 
physiology,  and  in  promoting  a  correct  understanding  of  the 
physical  attributes  of  man,  it  is  also  likely  to  be  even  more 
profitable  in  the  study  of  his  mental  characteristics  and  his  social 
impulses.  We  are  beginning  to  see  that  man  is  essentially  a 
social  being,  and  that  his  vision  of  the  world  is  largely  tinged 
and  modified  by  his  past  social  experiences  and  those  of  his 
gregarious  pre-human  progenitors. 

It  is  not  altogether  in  the  field  of  analogy,  however,  that  the 
comparative  method  is  fruitful  in  anthropological  and  sociological 
researches.  The  differences  between  man  and  his  poor  relations 
of  the  lower  animal  types  are  quite  as  interesting  and  instructive 
as  the  likenesses.  If  reversion  to  animal  traits  and  conduct 
throws  important  light  on  the  problems  of  criminal  anthropology 
and  degeneration  in  human  societies,  it  is  in  quite  another 
direction  that  we  must  turn  for  our  explanation  of  those 
progressive  social  and  individual  tendencies  which  have  raised 
man  above  the  brute  creation  and  inspired  him  to  transform  and 
regenerate  himself  and  his  world-environment. 

Man,  as  far  as  we  know,  is  the  only  animal  capable  of  creating 
ideals — of  projecting  the  synthetic  imagination  into  the  realm  of 
future  possibilities,  and  of  erecting  there  beacon-lights  which  will 
guide  and  inspire  him  to  higher  and  ever  higher  achievements. 


4        '>*.   "•    .\""*   ^  "      .'  ^OT?R   NATION'S    PERIL 

He  is  the  only  animal  that,  by  the  exercise  of  intelligent  volition, 
can  determine  his  own  conduct  and  direct  his  own  activities  to 
ideal  ends.  The  lower  animal  types  reach  stages  of  statical 
adaptation  to  the  world-environment  beyond  which  they  are  never 
lifted  save  by  the  influence  of  artificial  selection,  under  the 
direction  of  human  intelligence.  Man  is  the  only  conscious 
creature  endowed  with  a  nature  infinitely  progressive  in  its 
capabilities ;  and  its  chief  difference  from  the  nature  of  the  lower 
animal  types  lies  exactly  in  this  point  of  its  ability  to  formulate 
ideals  and  make  them  the  object  of  its  consecrated  aspiration  and 
effort.  Living  creatures  below  the  human  are  forced  up  the  scale 
of  being  mainly  under  the  stress  of  physical  necessities,  by  the 
operation  of  the  law  of  natural  selection,  which  finds  its 
opportunity  in  the  never-ceasing  struggle  for  existence.  While 
these  influences  are  by  no  means  relaxed  in  the  experience  of 
man,  he  is  also  led  up  the  scale  of  being  by  the  friendly  hand  of 
the  ideals  created  by  his  synthetic  imagination. 

We  should  by  no  means  be  justified  in  inferring,  however,  that 
man's  ideals  constitute  infallible  guides  in  the  improvement  of 
social  or  individual  conditions.  They  partake  of  the  finiteness 
and  fallibility  of  his  human  nature,  and  are  more  or  less  helpful 
and  inspiring  as  they  spring  from  greater  or  less  degrees  of 
intelligence,  correct  information,  and  consecrated  moral  purpose. 
It  is  even  possible  for  these  ideals  to  become  wholly  aberrant  and 
misleading,  and  to  promote  social  and  individual  degeneration, 
instead  of  progress.  The  study  of  these  ideals,  and  of  the 
conditions  under  which  they  are  created  and  become  dominant 
factors  in  the  lives  of  men  and  of  societies,  is  therefore  of  the 
highest  import  to  the  student  of  social  conditions,  as  well  as  to 
the  statesman,  moral  reformer  and  religious  teacher.  It  is  to 
this  study,  and  to  some  of  the  practical  conclusions  that  seem  to 
flow  from  it,  that  this  paper  would  invite  attention. 

As  it  relates  to  the  individual  life  and  character,  the  principle 
involved  in  our  thesis  is  clearly  recognized  in  the  prescient 
saying :  "As  a  man  thinketh  in  his  heart,  so  is  he.''  Everywhere 
the  founder  of  Christianity  emphasizes  the  inner  nature  and 
purpose  of  the  heart,  rather  than  the  outward  act,  as  the  criterion 
of  character.  While  this  is  none  the  less  strongly  emphasized 
by  the  scientific  psychology  and  sociology  of  the  present  day, 
they  also  afiirm  the  importance  of  studying  the  motive,  or  ideal, 
in  the  light  of  its  eventuation  in  the  act  and  its  consequences,  in 


SOCIAL    IDEALS    AND    SOCIAL    PROGRESS  5 

order  to  correct  the  aberrations  due  to  human  ignorance  and 
fallibility.  In  our  relations  to  our  fellow-men  and  to  society,  we 
are  justly  held  responsible,  not  merely  for  sincerity  of  purpose 
and  the  consecration  of  will  and  effort  towards  its  attainment, 
but  also  for  an  intelligent  understanding  of  the  results  which 
necessarily  flow  from  the  courses  of  action  which  we  are  thus 
impelled  to  undertake. 

It  is  not  to  the  individual  but  to  the  social  implications  of  the 
principle  that  I  wish  here  especially  to  call  attention.  A  brief 
reference  to  some  of  the  wider  and  more  general  illustrations  of 
the  influence  of  social  ideals  on  the  trend  of  civilization  and  racial 
development  may  help  to  clear  the  way  for  a  closer  and  more 
practical  application  of  our  thesis  to  the  problems  immediately 
before  us  for  solution.  Whatever  may  be  our  individual  estimate 
of  the  nature  of  religion  and  the  utility  .of  religious  beliefs,  no 
thoughtful  student  of  history  can  fail  to  recognize  the  potent 
influence  of  religious  ideals  in  determining  the  destinies  of  the 
race.  It  is  in  the  broader  attitude  of  religion  toward  life,  rather 
than  in  its  special  dogmas  or  ritual  observances,  that  this 
influence  is  chiefly  felt  in  moulding  the  character  of  social 
institutions. 

The  Oriental  religions  are  generally  pessimistic  in  their 
attitude  toward  the  life  that  now  is.  Tacitly  or  implicitly,  they 
assume  that  suffering  and  evil  are  such  dominant  and  all-pervading 
factors  in  the  very  nature  of  a  phenomenal  existence  that  the  only 
rational  ideal  for  human  aspiration  is  the  attainment  of  a  state 
which  transcends  the  phenomenal,  and  in  which  supreme  bliss  is 
reached  by  the  renunciation  of  all  which  makes  life  in  this 
phenomenal  world.  This  life,  the  orthodox  Hindu  says,  is 
Maya  —  real  enough  indeed  as  a  fact  of  present  experience,  full 
of  ignorance  with  its  resulting  pains  and  sorrows,  but  owing  its 
reality  in  our  consciousness  to  the  fact  that  somehow  the  soul  has 
become  entangled  in  the  mesh  of  material  things,  and  is  thereby 
blinded  to  its  true  nature.  This  veil  of  illusion  can  only  be  torn 
away  by  the  attainment  of  a  super-conscious  state  in  which  all 
sense  of  "I "  and  "Thou,"  of  a  subjective  world  of  mind  and  an 
objective  world  of  matter,  alike  transitory  and  phenomenal,  is 
utterly  transcended.  Brahminism,  therefore,  largely  gives  itself 
up  to  meditation  and  introspection,  pays  little  heed  to  the 
improvement  of  material  conditions,  neglects  or  mortifies  the  flesh 
by  ascetic  observances,  regards  the  celibate  life  as  more  holy  than 


6  OUR  nation's  peril 

that  of  wedlock,  pays  so  little  attention  to  statesmanship  and  the 
science  of  government  that  its  social  organism  never  rises  out  of 
the  feudal  condition  until  it  has  fallen  a  prey  to  one  foreign 
invader  after  another,  finally  achieving  its  nearest  approach  to 
political  unity  and  a  common  feeling  of  nationality  under  English 
rule.  The  development  of  the  Caste  system  in  India  is  the  result 
of  an  attempt  to  avoid  the  stress  of  competition  by  the  rigid 
segregation  of  industries  and  occupations,  rather  than  by  seeking 
a  higher  solution  of  the  industrial  problem  through  rational 
thought,  persistent  effort,  and  a  normal  process  of  unhampered 
evolution. 

Buddhism  was  in  some  respects  a  natural  reaction  against  the 
inertia  and  extreme  bent  toward  introspection  and  metaphysical 
speculation  illustrated  in  Brahminism,  but  it  also  is  profoundly 
pessimistic  as  regards  the  present  life.  It  views  this  earthly 
existence  as  a  transitory  process,  full  of  pain  and  misery.  It 
denies  a  permanent  soul  entity,  and  is  silent  as  to  the 
existence  of  a  permanent  Being  behind  the  never-ceasing  round 
of  phenomenal  change.  Its  Nirvana,  whether  or  not  it  implies 
absolute  non-existence,  is  an  escape  from  the  consciousness  of 
temporal  conditions  and  the  succession  of  re-incarnations,  into  a 
state  so  wholly  different  as  to  be  indescribable  in  language,  and 
only  to  be  apprehended  through  experience.  Buddhism,  trans- 
planted from  its  native  soil,  has  doubtless  largely  misunderstood 
and  misinterpreted  the  thought  of  its  founder.  Though  on  the 
whole  it  has  given  an  ethical  uplift  to  the  nations  where  it  has 
taken  root,  it  has  often  been  overgrown  with  superstitions,  and 
has  not  been  able  to  throw  off  the  incubus  of  pessimism  which 
was  its  inheritance. 

Zoroastrianism  and  Judaism,  in  their  earlier  developed  forms, 
though  scarcely  less  pessimistic  as  regards  the  present  conditions 
of  earthly  existence,  are  less  mystical  and  metaphysical,  and  more 
objective  in  their  visions  of  the  future  life.  Both  dream,  as  did 
the  early  Christian,  of  a  regenerated  earth,  purified  by  fire,  and 
inhabited  by  a  race  purged  of  sin  and  endowed  with  immortality. 
Here  we  have  no  vision  of  a  state  superconscious  and  indescribable, 
but  of  a  world  of  conscious  existence  in  a  redeemed  society,  as  a 
boon  to  the  righteous.  The  greater  objectivity  of  this  ideal,  and 
the  hope  for  ultimate  happiness  on  a  regenerated  earth,  has  doubt- 
less been  a  large  factor  in  maintaining  the  wonderful  vitality  of 
the  Jew  in  spite  of  expatriation  and  persecution,  and  in  preserving 


SOCIAL    IDEALS    AND    SOCIAL    PROGRESS  7 

the  qualities  of  enterprise  and  commercial  success  both  in  the 
Jew  and  in  the  Parsi. 

In  the  more  invigorating  atmosphere  of  Occidental  life,  the 
conception  of  the  present  state  of  existence  has  never  been 
wholly  pessimistic.  The  Greek  and  Roman  rejoiced  in  bodily 
strength  and  beauty,  and  found  enjoyment  in  conflict  with  the  foe 
and  the  contest  with  the  forces  and  inertia  of  the  physical  world. 
Even  their  barbaric  games,  the  fierce  contests  of  the  arena, 
testify  to  a  delight  in  life  and  in  the  exercise  of  the  bodily 
powers  which  we  do  not  find  in  the  developed  thought  of  the 
Orient.  Plato,  who  voiced  the  highest  thought  of  the  Greek, 
described  in  his  "  Republic  "  his  conception  of  an  ideal  earthly 
society.  Aristotle  also  draws  his  picture  of  the  perfect  social 
state.  Though  neither  Plato  nor  Aristotle  dreamed  of  lifting 
the  slave  into  citizenship,  or  of  assuring  to  all  an  equality  of 
social  or  industrial  opportunity,  the  visions  of  both  were  hopeful 
of  future  possibilities  in  an  earthly  society,  and  were  incentives 
to  effort  toward  their  realization.  Both  the  Greek  and  the 
Roman,  however,  laid  stress  on  custom,  legislation  and  govern- 
menta.1  authority  as  the  means  of  social  regeneration,  rather  than 
upon  education  and  the  transformation  of  individual  character ; 
and  the  political  structures  of  both  were  ultimately  wrecked  on 
the  rocks  of  imperialism  and  the  supremacy  of  military  power. 

Christianity,  mingling  its  primitive  ethical  and  eschatological 
conceptions  with  the  prevalent  Pagan  ideas,  has  at  once  held  up 
the  vision  of  an  objective  heaven,  wherein  the  associations  and 
some  of  the  activities  of  the  earthly  life  will  be  continued,  and 
enforced  the  obligation  of  transforming  human  society,  so  as  to 
build  up  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  the  earth.  Adapting  itself  to 
varying  racial  and  political  conditions  as  none  of  the  older 
religions  were  able  to  do,  it  has  nowhere  left  a  pure  and 
unadulterated  bequest  of  institutions  inspired  by  the  ideals  of 
its  founder.  Its  influence  can  only  be  traced  as  modified  by 
local  environments,  and  more  or  less  distorted  by  varying  racial 
and  philosophical  tendencies.  The  dominant  ideals  in  the 
modern  Christian  and  civilized  world  are  rather  national  and 
local  than  ethical  and  universal.  The  love  of  individual  liberty 
which  characterizes  the  Teutonic  peoples,  conjoined  to  racial  self- 
confidence,  industrial  and  commercial  enterprise  seeking  world- 
conquest  for  its  opportunities,  mingled  with  a  poorly  concealed 
contempt  for  weaker  races,  is  modified  by  the  local  circumstances 


8  OUR  nation's  peril 

under  which  it  finds  expression.  In  England  and  Holland  the 
dominant  ideals  are  those  of  commercial  and  industrial  supremacy. 
In  Germany,  whether  under  the  scholastic  influence  of  the 
Hegelian  philosophy^  as  Mr.  Davidson  surmises/  or  not,  the 
conception  of  a  strong  government  under  an  imperial  director  has 
given  the  tendency  of  social  evolution  a  somewhat  different  trend. 
In  the  United  States  the  democratic  spirit,  so  long  our  dominant 
ideal,  is  now  struggling  for  supremacy  with  the  commercial  and 
money-making  power  which  dominates  the  policy  of  the  Mother 
Country. 

In  the  light  of  historical  investigation,  it  is  not  difficult  to 
foresee  the  outcome  of  some  of  these  tendencies  in  national  life. 
Unrestrained  by  those  religious  influences  which  stiU  constitute 
a  distinct  factor  in  the  policy  of  the  Latin  peoples,  the  imperial- 
ism of  Germany  is  drifting  rapidly  toward  a  form  of  State 
Socialism.  Whether  or  not  this  tendency  shall  ultimately  take  a 
democratic  rather  than  an  autocratic  trend,  it  will  in  either  case 
rigidly  constrain  and  inhibit  individual  freedom.  The  industrial 
conditions  tending  to  this  result  are  world-wide,  and  in  so  far  as 
the  Latin  nations  become  emancipated  from  the  restraining 
influence  of  the  Eoman  Church,  we  may  anticipate  a  similar 
though  somewhat  more  tardy  development  of  the  socialistic 
policy  in  them.  Though  England  and  the  United  States,  more 
than  any  other  nations,  have  felt  the  movement  of  the  democratic 
spirit,  it  is  not  doubtful  that  influences  are  now  strongly  at  work 
in  these  countries,  which  threaten  to  impel  them  in  the  same 
direction.  The  concentration  of  wealth  in  the  hands  of  a  few 
great  exploiters  of  industrial  enterprise  gives  them  a  power  in 
legislation  and  the  direction  of  public  policies  which  enables 
them  to  control  the  machinery  of  government,  and  practically  to 
annul  the  influence  of  the  masses  of  the  people;  while  the 
demands  of  commercial  greed,  seeking  for  extended  markets, 
encourage  the  spirit  of  conquest  and  military  domination,  thus 
creating  the  machinery  which  the  advocates  of  State  Socialism 
have  only  to  seize  and  use.  That  the  masters  of  commerce  and 
manufacture,  the  promoters  of  combinations  and  trusts,  the 
millionaires  who  seek  the  Senatorial  toga  and  positions  of  power 
and  responsibility  in  the  State,  are  blind  to  the  certain  outcome 
of  these  tendencies  does  not  render  them  less  clear  to  the  student 
of  sociological  conditions. 

1 "  The  Task  of  the  Twentieth  Century,"  a  lecture  by  Thomas  Davidson. 


SOCIAL    IDEALS    AXD    SOCIAL    PROGRESS  9 

The  situation  may  be  summed  up  in  the  statement  that  the 
ideals  now  dominant  in  our  western  world  are  economic  and 
materialistic  rather  than  ethical  and  idealistic;  that  under  the 
influence  of  such  ideals  a  scarcely  veiled  egoism  dominates  even 
our  avowed  altruistic  impulses,  and  threatens  to  transform 
democracy  itself  into  an  instrument  for  undermining  personal 
liberty,  destroying  individual  opportunity,  and  sowing  everywhere 
the  seeds  of  disintegration  and  decay  in  the  heart  of  our  boasted 
civilization.  If  it  is  said  that  these  are  no  new  influences,  that 
they  are  illustrative  of  the  same  old  forces  and  tendencies  that 
have  existed  in  human  societies  since  the  world  began,  the  fact 
certainly  must  be  admitted.  Like  self-willed  children,  the  great 
nations  of  the  present  day  seem  bound  to  attain  wisdom,  if  indeed 
they  ever  do  attain  it,  through  the  hard  school  of  personal 
experience,  rather  than  by  a  thoughtful  appreciation  of  the 
lessons  taught  by  the  experience  of  past  generations.  But  with 
the  machinery  of  modern  civilization,  it  is  at  once  the  hope  and 
the  serious  concern  of  the  thoughtful  student  of  social  conditions 
that  progress  toward  the  inevitable  result  must  be  vastly  more 
rapid  than  it  has  ever  been  before  in  the  world's  history.  Will 
it  be  sufficiently  rapid  to  arrest  the  attention  of  the  wisest  and 
most  thoughtful  leaders  and  teachers  of  the  people,  through  them 
to  create  nobler  ideals  in  our  social,  national  and  industrial  life, 
and  so  assure  a  reversal  of  these  tendencies  toward  social 
degeneracy  ? 

Since  the  advent  of  Christianity,  there  have  been  in  many  ages 
great  thinkers  and  large-hearted  lovers  of  their  kind,  from  Saint 
Augustine  to  Sir  Thomas  More,  Edward  Bellamy  and  William 
Dean  Howells,  who  have  formulated  their  visions  of  a  perfect  life 
and  endeavored  to  popularize  ideals  in  harmony  with  that  religion 
to  which  Christendom  gives  a  formal  lip-service.  These  ideals 
have  been  of  real  utility  in  revealing  the  defects  in  the  existing 
social  order,  and  in  stimulating  efforts  for  its  betterment.  They 
have  failed  to  become  potent  in  determining  the  actual  trend  of 
social  evolution  because  they  have  built  upon  speculative  and 
metaphysical  conceptions  of  the  nature  of  man  as  a  social  being, 
rather  than  upon  a  scientific  understanding  of  the  conditions  with 
which  they  have  attempted  to  deal.  It  is  only  within  very  recent 
times,  indeed,  that  anything  like  a  scientific  study  of  man  and 
society  has  been  attempted,  and  the  results  of  this  study  even 
now  have   hardly  permeated  the   most  intelligent  stratum   of 


10  OUR  nation's  peril 

modern  society.  Sociology  is  just  beginning  to  take  its  place  as 
a  university  study,  and  its  method  is  often  far  from  scientific. 
The  discussion  of  a  priori  theories  and  speculations  often  largely 
supplants  serious  efforts  to  investigate  and  comprehend  the  life 
of  man  as  revealed  in  existing  societies  and  as  related  to  his 
historical  past.  Yet  the  wisest  students  of  society  are  convinced 
that  the  method  which  has  been  so  fruitful  of  beneficent  results 
on  the  material  plane  of  life  may  be  made  no  less  fruitful  in  its 
application  to  social  and  economic  problems. 

Hitherto  men  have  spun  their  social  theories,  very  much  as 
they  have  their  theological  and  philosophical  notions,  out  of  their 
inner  consciousness,  and  have  looked  for  the  fulfilment  of  their 
social  ideals  by  revolutionary  methods.  Eevolution,  indeed, 
often  comes  as  a  result  of  this  unscientific  method  of  procedure, 
but  the  ideals  of  the  Kevolutionists  are  never  fully  achieved. 
The  communistic  agitator  of  the  present  day  is  often  an  idealist, 
filled  with  the  noblest  altruistic  impulses ;  but  he  would  trans- 
form society  by  a  violent  disregard  of  the  most  fundamental 
qualities  of  human  nature,  knocking  away  the  very  ladder  by 
which  man  has  climbed  out  of  barbarism  and  animalism  and 
disregarding  the  principle  of  social  justice  which  apportions 
rewards  according  to  deserts,  in  the  vain  attempt  to  establish  an 
impossible  and  undesirable  ideal  of  social  equality.  He  would 
make  man's  desires,  or  his  assumed  physical  and  intellectual 
necessities,  the  measure  of  his  right  to  the  use  of  the  earth  and 
the  products  of  industry,  rather  than  the  quality  and  faithfulness 
of  his  own  service ;  thereby  perpetuating  the  conditions  of  infancy 
in  the  adult  life  of  the  world,  and  creating  societies  of  grown-up 
babes  rather  than  of  manly  and  self-reliant  men  and  women. 
The  social  ideal  of  the  communist,  which  aims  primarily  at 
equality,  if  it  became  dominant,  would  produce  a  dead-level  of 
mediocrity  in  character  and  attainment,  a  statical  condition  in 
society  which  would  inhibit  progress  and  lead  inevitably  to 
retrogression.  The  production  of  variations  is  the  essential 
condition  of  all  evolution  —  the  necessary ^o?^  sto  for  the  operation 
of  natural  selection,  volitional  effort,  or  any  other  imaginable 
evolutionary  agency ;  and  this  would  be  seriously  retarded  by  a 
communistic  or  socialistic  regime.  However  exalted  may  be  the 
aims  of  the  advocates  of  the  communistic  propaganda  and  the 
abolition  of  private  property,  the  scientific  sociologist  must 
regard  the  ideals  which  they  hold  up  for  the  admiration  and 


SOCIAL    IDEALS    AND    SOCIAL    PROGRESS  11 

aspiration  of  the  toiling  poor  as  distinctly  reactionary  and 
mischievous. 

The  scientific  student  of  society  begins  by  ascertaining  the 
facts  of  human  evolution  and  observing  the  natural  trend  of 
social  progress.  He  recognizes  the  divine  law  of  evolution  in 
every  step  of  the  way,  even  in  the  struggle  for  existence  which 
marks  its  earlier  stages  and  is  nowhere  entirely  absent.  Instead 
of  endeavoring  to  stem  the  tide  of  social  evolution,  which  has 
been  steadily  away  from  a  homogeneous  society  in  which  all 
perform  like  functions  and  occupy  relatively  identical  positions, 
toward  a  society  more  and  more  heterogeneous  in  its  structure, 
wherein  individuals  perform  functions  more  and  more  individual- 
ized and  unlike,  he  endeavors  to  educate  the  will  and  intelligence 
to  conform  to  this  natural  order  and  tendency,  thereby  avoiding 
the  friction,  suffering  and  pain  which  always  accompany  resistance 
to  Nature's  processes.  He  perceives  that  perfect  social  integration 
can  be  achieved  neither  by  anarchical  independence  nor  by 
the  communistic  dependence  of  the  individual  on  society;  but 
rather  by  the  mutual  interdependence  of  completely  individual- 
ized social  units,  each  of  whom  renders  to  society  the  highest 
possible  service,  receiving  therefor  a  reward  proportionate  to 
the  faithfulness,  skill  and  intelligence  which  are  combined  in 
his  work. 

Social  Science,  like  all  other  sciences,  does  not  rest  with  the 
mere  collection,  verification  and  collation  of  facts  derived  from 
the  study  of  man  in  his  relations  with  his  fellows ;  it  searches 
beneath  these  facts  for  the  general  principles  which  underlie  and 
account  for  them.  These  principles,  when  scientifically  discovered 
and  verified,  are  regarded  as  laws  of  evolution,  and  deductive 
inferences  logically  drawn  from  them  are  strictly  justifiable 
according  to  the  scientific  method.  The  discovery  of  such  laws 
has  always  been  regarded  as  the  crowning  achievement  of  science 
in  other  fields  of  research.  That  similar  laws  are  revealed  by  the 
scientific  investigation  of  social  phenomena  is  the  claim  of  the 
evolutionary  sociologist.  Having  clearly  recognized  these  general 
principles  underlying  all  actual  progressive  tendencies  in  society, 
the  deduction  from  them  of  rational  rules  of  conduct  is  the  only 
reasonable  and  genuinely  scientific  mode  of  procedure.  By  this 
method  only  can  correct  ideals  be  formulated,  and  human  volition 
be  trained  to  co-operate  with  Nature  in  a  normal  process  of 
evolution,  instead  of  working  blindly,  by  empirical  experimentation. 


12  OUR  nation's  peril 

and  thus  producing  abnormal  conditions,  to  escape  from  which 
violent  and  revolutionary  methods  are  often  necessary. 

The  outcome  of  all  these  normal  processes  which  tend  toward 
the  goal  of  perfection,  whether  in  the  lower  phases  of  cosmic  and 
biological  evolution,  or  in  the  development  of  man  and  society,  is 
fulness  of  life  —  the  free  and  unhampered  exercise  of  every 
natural  faculty  under  conditions  of  opportunity  most  favorable  to 
this  end.  Natural  selection  operates  only  to  preserve  such 
variations  as  directly  serve  this  purpose.  The  destruction  and 
atrophy  of  organs  and  functions  in  the  individual  organism,  of 
individuals  and  species  in  the  biological  world,  or  of  nations  and 
societies  in  the  higher  arena  of  man's  social  relationships,  result 
always  from  a  negative,  never  from  the  positive,  operation  of  this 
law  —  from  the  simple  withdrawal  of  natural  selection  rather  than 
from  its  direct  destructive  activity.  The  "unfit"  must  needs 
suffer  by  reason  of  their  want  of  adaptation  to  environing 
conditions,  and  are  therefore  mercifully  eliminated  when  the 
conflict  becomes  actually  hopeless.  Nature  thus  always  seems  to 
be  working  by  the  most  effectual  methods  toward  a  beneficent 
end.  When,  however,  false  political  and  social  ideals  induce  us 
to  force  upon  undeveloped  races  or  individuals  a  struggle  for 
which  they  are  not  prepared  by  the  slow  processes  of  normal 
evolution,  the  inevitable  result  is  the  destruction  of  such  races 
and  individuals,  not  their  elevation  into  a  fuller  and  larger  life. 
Our  artificial  attempts  to  civilize  and  Christianize  the  lower  races 
are  often  tragical  failures  instead  of  successes,  from  the  lack  of 
knowledge  of  this  important  natural  law.  Nowhere  is  this  result 
more  pathetically  evident  than  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  whose 
native  inhabitants  have  been  repeatedly  decimated  by  vices 
and  diseases  introduced  by  contact  with  our  so-called  higher 
civilization,  together  with  oppressive  and  violent  changes  in  their 
habits  and  conditions  of  life,  for  insistence  upon  which  their 
oppressors  will  not  be  held  guiltless  in  the  great  ethical  accounting, 
from  which  neither  individuals  nor  nations  can  escape. 

Nature  always  seeks  her  ends,  by  preference,  through  the 
processes  of  gradual  modification  and  orderly  growth,  rather  than 
by  the  production  of  violent  and  revolutionary  changes.  We 
readily  recognize  this  fact  in  the  ordinary  range  of  biological 
evolution,  but  not  so  readily,  perhaps,  in  contemplating  the  great 
cosmic  changes  that  have  antedated  and  accompanied  the  growth 
of  living  forms,  or  in  that  subsequent  societary  development  in 


SOCIAL    IDEALS    AND    SOCIAL    PPwOGRESS  13 

which  the  human  will  is  a  co-operating  factor.  Cataclysms, 
indeed,  are  sometimes  necessary ;  but  whenever  they  occur  they 
bring  about  a  return  to  something  like  the  original  chaos,  and 
compel  Nature  to  begin  her  evolutionary  processes  over  again.  It 
is  the  ^^  silent  perseverance  "  of  Nature  which  promotes  the  surest 
and  most  rapid  progress.  Violent  upheavals  of  the  existing 
order  involve  the  loss  of  much  valuable  time,  which  is  saved  by 
constant  and  orderly  obedience  to  Nature's  upbuilding  laws. 
However  strongly,  therefore,  our  ideals  may  shame  and  rebuke 
our  actual  achievements,  they  should  be  approximated  by 
evolutionary  and  not  by  revolutionary  methods. 

In  the  application  of  the  scientific  method  to  social  and 
governmental  problems,  the  formation  of  correct  ideals  is  a 
legitimate  and  most  important  step.  Critics  like  the  late 
Professor  Huxley,  Mr.  Benjamin  Kidd,  and  Professor  W.  G. 
Sumner,  who  assume  that  such  ideals  necessarily  antagonize 
the  operations  of  cosmic  law,  render  a  questionable  service  to 
sociological  discussions.  Professor  Sumner  asserts,  for  example, 
that  social  ideals  are  not  discoverable  through  experience ;  that 
they  are  creations  of  the  speculative  reason  acting  wholly  on 
a  priori  data.  Speaking  of  the  doctrine  of  civil  liberty,  he 
declares  that  "  it  is  not  a  scientific  fact ;  it  is  not  in  the  order  of 
Nature."  It  is  a  dogma  "which  never  had  an  historical 
foundattion."  ^  The  only  evidence  which  can  be  adduced  in 
behalf  of  his  assertion  is  to  be  found  in  the  admitted  fact  that 
social  ideals  have  nowhere  yet  been  completely  realized  in  the 
historical  development  of  society ;  and  this,  I  suppose,  is  what 
the  learned  Professor  really  meant  to  assert.  Is  it  a  correct 
inference  from  this  fact  that  such  ideals,  and  the  doctrine  of  civil 
liberty  in  particular,  "  have  no  historical  foundation  "  ?  To  the 
student  of  the  scientific  method,  it  would  certainly  appear 
otherwise. 

The  chief  glory  of  natural  science  is  that  synthetizing  and 
prophetic  quality  which  enables  its  disciples,  by  the  investigation 
of  past  tendencies  and  existing  facts,  to  discover  the  normal 
trend  and  direction  of  Nature's  processes,  to  formulate  the 
general  principles  or  laws  of  growth,  and  thereby  to  reach 
forward  to  new  discoveries.  In  this  manner  science  has  proceeded 
in  its  progressive  conquest  of  the  laws  and  forces  of  the  material 
world.      "The   scientific  use   of    the    imagination"  has    been 

1  Popular  Science  Monthly. 


14  OUR  nation's  peril 

recognized  even  by  Professor  Huxley  as  a  most  important  factor 
in  scientific  procedure.^  This  is  by  no  means  mere  a  priori 
guess-work;  it  is  the  projection  of  the  trained  reason,  acting 
upon  a  synthesis  of  materials  derived  from  the  investigation  of 
observed  facts  and  discovered  laws  and  forces,  into  the  region  of 
the  unknown.  Watt,  noticing  the  action  of  steam  escaping  from 
a  kettle,  and  therefrom  deducing  inferences  that  led  to  the 
invention  of  the  steam-engine;  Newton,  regarding  the  falling 
apple,  and  therefrom  receiving  the  suggestion  that  led  to  the 
discovery  of  the  law  of  gravitation;  Adams  and  LeVerrier, 
independently  noting  the  perturbations  of  Uranus,  reasoning 
that  the  cause  must  be  found  in  the  existence  of  an  unseen 
planet,  computing  its  position  in  space  and  finding  it  there 
with  their  telescopes;  Agassiz,  reconstructing  an  animal  of 
an  extinct  species  by  the  study  of  a  single  bone :  —  these  are  all 
examples  of  the  prophetic  and  deductive  method  in  scientific 
research  which  supplements  the  inductive  empiricism  of  an 
earlier  stage  of  scientific  progress,  and  lies  at  the  foundation  of 
all  notable  advancement  in  our  knowledge  of  Nature  and 
comprehension  of  her  stable  and  everlasting  laws.  Social  ideals 
and  the  laws  of  societary  development  may  be  formulated  and 
discovered  by  precisely  analogous  methods.  While,  in  the  past, 
efforts  in  this  direction  have  doubtless  been  largely  speculative 
and  metaphysical,  it  is  the  hope  and  promise  of  better  things  in 
the  future  that  they  may  become  strictly  scientific. 

In  order  that  this  may  be  accomplished,  the  student  of 
sociological  phenomena  must  be  thoroughly  grounded  in  the 
scientific  method  as  it  is  revealed  in  the  study  of  the  physical 
and  biological  sciences.  He  must  carry  the  results  of  these 
investigations,  as  well  as  their  method,  into  the  higher  realms  of 
psychology  and  sociology.  By  the  great  masters  of  evolutionary 
science,  society  is  regarded  as  an  organism,  possessing  functions 
and  attributes  corresponding  to  those  of  the  individual  organism. 
Mr.  Spencer  notes,  however,  that  society  differs  from  the  higher 
individual  organisms  in  the  fact  that  no  social  sensorium  is 
discoverable.  It  is  the  sensorium,  which  feels  and  thinks  and 
wills,  that  constitutes  the  ultimate  goal  of  all  evolutionary 
processes  —  the  criterion  of  judgment  as  to  their  nature  and 
trend.  In  organic  structures,  therefore,  the  unit  or  cell  exists 
for  the  sake  of  the  completed  organism,  while  in  society  the 

1  See  Essay  iu  "Lay  Sermong." 


SOCIAL    IDEALS    AND    SOCIAL    PKOGRESS  15 

social  combination  exists  for  the  sake  of  the  individual,  or  social 
unit.  It  is  the  individual  only  who  struggles,  suffers  and  enjoys. 
Societies  and  institutions  are  to  be  approved  or  condemned  by 
their  relative  utility  in  conducing  to  the  freedom,  happiness, 
opportunity  and  completeness  of  life  in  the  individual.  The 
founder  of  Christianity  recognized  this  truth  when  he  declared 
that  "  the  Sabbath  is  made  for  man,  not  man  for  the  Sabbath." 
So  all  institutions,  scientific  sociology  affirms,  are  made  for  man, 
not  man  for  institutions. 

Notwithstanding  this  obvious  and  important  difference, 
essentially  psychological  in  its  character,  the  resemblances 
between  social  and  organic  structures  are  sufficiently  evident 
and  noteworthy  to  render  the  knowledge  of  biological  laws  most 
instructive,  if  not  absolutely  essential,  to  the  political  economist 
and  sociologist.  Both  biology  and  sociology  treat  of  the 
phenomena  of  life ;  both  involve  psychological  as  well  as  merely 
physical  conditions.  In  the  natural  order  of  the  sciences,  the 
one  leads  up  to  the  other  by  an  inevitable  sequence.  Whether 
we  agree  that  a  society  may  properly  be  termed  an  organism  or 
not,  there  is  a  similarity  in  the  processes  of  growth  between 
biological  and  sociological  structures  which  is  noteworthy  and 
most  suggestive.  Inorganic  structures  grow  by  simple  accretion, 
or  addition  to  their  bulk.  Their  growth  is  involuntary,  and  is 
chiefly  determined  by  external  forces  and  conditions.  Organic 
substances,  on  the  contrary,  grow  by  intussusception,  a  process  of 
waste  and  repair  which  directly  affects  the  individual  cell  or 
structural  unit  throughout  the  internal  constitution  of  the  organ- 
ism. In  this  respect  the  growth  of  societies  resembles  that  of 
organic  structures  :  it  is  a  sort  of  vital  chemistry.  The  individual 
in  his  relation  to  society  resembles  the  cell  in  the  biological 
organism.  The  death  of  individuals  and  the  birth  and  growth  of 
others  to  fill  their  places  in  society  proceed  in  like  manner  with 
the  process  of  waste  and  repair  in  organic  structures.  "  Human 
institutions,"  says  Taine,  "like  living  bodies,  are  made  and 
unmade  by  their  own  forces ;  and  their  health  passes  away,  or 
their  cure  is  effected,  by  the  sole  effect  of  their  nature  and 
situation."  We  are  beginning  to  see  that  where  the  growth  of 
political  societies  is  forced  by  mere  accretion,  as  by  the  external 
compulsion  of  conquest  or  an  unassimilated  immigration  of  alien 
elements,  the  addition  is  a  source  of  weakness  instead  of  strength, 
a  disintegrating  instead  of  an  integrating  factor. 


16  OUR  nation's  peril 

In  the  biological  structure,  the  attractive  forces  which  bind 
atoms  into  cells,  and  cells  into  an  organic  unity,  are  molecular  and 
physical.  In  the  sociological  structure,  they  are  functional  and 
psychical.  Herein,  I  think,  lies  the  explanation  of  that  difference 
between  these  structures  which  Mr.  Spencer  and  other  writers 
have  recognized.  As  to  the  essential  nature  of  those  forces  which 
we  call  attractive, —  e.  g.,  gravitation,  cohesion,  and  chemical 
affinity,  we  really  know  nothing.  We  know  these  forces  only 
through  their  observed  effects ;  and  their  "  laws,"  which  we 
deduce  from  repeated  observations  of  these  effects,  are  merely 
our  subjective  classifications  of  observed  recurrent  phenomena. 
In  regard  to  sociological  phenomena,  however,  we  have  an 
additional  means  of  information.  We  can  study  the  attractive 
forces  which  bind  societies  together,  not  only  in  the  secondary 
relation  of  their  observed  effects,  but  also  in  their  primary 
relation  as  movements  of  our  own  thought.  Affection  and  self- 
interest  are  thus  seen  to  be  the  attractive  forces  which  bind 
society  together ;  and  these  forces  are  directed  and  made  steadily 
operative 'Solely  by  individual  volition.  Therefore  it  is  that  on 
its  psychical  side  —  the  side  directly  involved  of  necessity  in  all 
processes  of  attempted  social  amelioration  or  change  —  society  is 
subordinated  to  the  individual,  the  structure  to  the  unit  or  monad, 
instead  of  the  reverse,  as  in  the  evolution  of  biological  organisms. 

Kecognizing  this  important  psychological  law,  the  conclusion 
is  logical  and  inevitable  that  all  actual  and  permanent  expansion 
and  integration  of  societies  must  proceed  by  the  voluntary 
co-operative  action  of  individuals.  The  statesman  or  social 
reformer  who  would  work  in  harmony  with  the  tendencies  and 
law^s  of  Nature,  must  therefore  direct  his  efforts  toward  convincing 
the  judgments  and  converting  the  motives  and  moral  natures  of 
individuals,  rather  than  toward  forcibly  changing  the  customs 
and  institutions  of  society  by  legal  enactment,  military  domination, 
or  a  majority  vote  under  the  white  heat  of  an  emotional  political 
campaign.  These  customary  methods  of  attempting  to  effect 
social  changes  may  be  of  some  service  as  educational  influences, 
inciting  thought  in  the  unreflecting,  but  as  means  of  finally 
solving  and  disposing  of  social  or  political  problems,  they  are 
lamentable  failures.^    It  is  the  too  exclusive  dwelling  on  biological 

1  The  condition  of  the  Negro,  and  of  the  social  problem  generally,  in  our  Southern 
States,  a  generation  after  the  edict  of  emancipation,  furnishes  significant  testimony 
to  the  truth  of  this  principle.  It  is  significant,  also,  that  in  profiting  by  the  results 
of  the  '•  shot-gun  "  policy  in  Hawaii  we  no  longer  oppose  it  in  the  Carolinas. 


SOCIAL    IDEALS    AND    SOCIAL    PROGRESS  17 

analogies  by  students  of  society  which  leads  to  socialistic  and 
communistic  conclusions  to  be  enforced  by  the  militant  power  of 
the  State.  Here  psychology  should  come  in  as  a  corrective, 
showing  that  man,  through  his  voluntary  action,  is  constantly 
reacting  on  his  environment  and  re-creating  it  in  the  image  of 
his  own  ideals. 

The  family  was  the  earliest  of  all  social  combinations,  and 
constitutes  the  true  type  of  every  phase  of  societary  development. 
The  family  is  based  on  the  marriage  relation,  and  all  true 
marriage  rests  on  the  uncoerced  consent  of  the  contracting 
parties.  As  this  consent  is  more  perfect  and  complete,  recognizing 
not  only  physical  and  emotional,  but  also  intellectual,  moral  and 
spiritual  attractions,  so  is  the  union  more  permanent  and 
satisfying.  Conversely,  in  the  degree  to  which  this  union  is 
merely  conventional  and  formal,  effected  by  external  compulsion, 
whether  of  physical  force,  constrained  ignorance,  or  the  artificial 
bias  of  law,  custom  or  ecclesiastical  policy,  in  the  same  degree 
the  relation  becomes  false  and  adulterous. 

The  same  principle  holds  good  in  every  stage  of  social 
combination,  however  complex  and  widely  extended  it  may 
be.  It  is  a  sound  political  philosophy,  justified  by  scientific 
sociological  principles,  which  is  enunciated  in  the  affirmation  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  that  "all  just  government  rests 
on  the  consent  of  the  governed."  This  is  as  true  in  Cuba,  Hawaii 
and  the  Philippines  as  it  is  in  Massachusetts ;  it  is  as  true  of 
the  older  monarchical  and  aristocratic  systems  as  it  is  of  a 
democratic-republican  form  of  government.  While  the  evolu- 
tionary sociologist  recognizes  that  different  forms  of  government 
are  adapted  to  varying  degrees  of  culture  and  social  development, 
he  also  knows  that  an  autocracy  which  does  not  rest  upon  the 
actual  consent  of  the  governed,  which  finds  no  response  in  the 
hearts  of  the  people,  but  is  maintained  solely  by  military 
compulsion,  is  a  tyranny,  unstable  in  its  foundations,  unadapted 
to  its  social  environment,  and  destined  to  early  destruction  by 
peaceful  or  violent  means.^ 

While  recognizing  the  relativity  of  ethical  principles  and 
institutional  forms,  and  the  consequent  adaptation  of  different 

1  The  recent  attempts  to  discredit  the  American  principle  in  academic  circles  in 
the  interest  of  colonial  expansion  {vide  recent  articles  and  published  addresses  by 
Professors  John  Bach  McMaster,  H.  H.  Powers,  F.  Spencer  Baldwin,  and  others) 
indicate  a  lamentable  failure  to  grasp  the  scientific  principles  underlying  the  whole 
problem  of  government  and  civil  rights.    See  Appendix,  II. 


18  OUR  nation's  peril 

forms  of  government  to  varying  stages  of  individual  intelligence 
and  social  progress,  the  ideal  form  of  society  and  ethics,  as  the 
ultimate  type  of  social  and  individual  evolution,  should  always 
be  kept  in  view  by  the  sociologist,  legislator,  and  social  reformer, 
else  they  will  be  lost  in  a  maze  of  empirical  experimentation,  as 
fatal  to  wise  practical  leadership  as  would  be  the  adoption  of  the 
panaceas  of  closet-philosophers  and  a  priori  theorists.  These 
ideals  are  discovered  through  experience  and  historical  investiga- 
tion, in  strict  accordance  with  the  scientific  method ;  but  they  can 
only  be  permanently  approximated  as  we  lift  the  masses  of  the 
people  by  training  and  culture  —  physical,  intellectual,  moral  and 
spiritual  —  to  higher  levels  of  life  and  thought. 

The  object  of  the  social  reformer  should  be  to  accomplish  the 
renovation  of  society,  and  to  secure  this  end  with  the  least 
possible  friction  and  delay.  Both  these  results  are  attained  by 
the  method  of  evolution;  both  are  retarded  and  thwarted  by 
anarchical  violence  and  the  compulsion  of  militant  methods. 
The  rational  individualism  of  the  evolutionary  ideal  must  be 
sharply  distinguished  from  the  destructive  anarchism  that  aims 
at  sudden  and  violent  revolution.  Here,  too,  Biology  offers  us 
a  wise  suggestion.  Gal  ton's  law  of  "  reversion  toward  mediocrity  " 
shows  that  biological  changes  which  are  suddenly  effected  by 
artificial  selection  and  forcible  deviation  from  the  main  trend  of 
natural  evolutionary  tendency  are  not  permanent.  They  last 
only  as  long  as  the  organisms  are  kept  constantly  under  the  stress 
of  the  artificial  conditions  that  have  produced  them.  When  left 
to  the  unrestrained  operation  of  purely  natural  forces,  they 
speedily  revert  to  their  original  status.  This  is  also  the  case  in 
social  evolution  whenever  the  conditions  are  artificially  forced 
in  advance  of  the  intellectual  culture  and  functional  development 
of  the  masses  of  the  people.  As  new  social  ideals  can  only  very 
slowly  supplant  those  which  are  ingrained  by  ages  of  custom  and 
prejudice,  the  aim  of  the  social  reformer  should  be  to  stimulate 
thought  by  example  and  object-lesson  rather  than  to  compel  the 
sudden  alteration  of  habits,  and  thus  to  build  along  the  great 
lines  of  natural  evolutionary  tendency,  making  use  of  those 
elemental  social,  moral  and  biological  forces  which  are  the  most 
effective  helpers  toward  the  desired  end. 

If,  now,  I  have  been  fortunate  in  the  presentation  of  my 
subject,  certain  points  should  be  made  clear  by  the  previous 
discussion : 


SOCIAL    IDEALS    AND    SOCIAL    PKOGRESS  19 

1.  That  man  is  the  only  animal  capable  of  creating  ideals. 

2.  That  these  ideals  become  the  most  important  factors  in 
social  evolution  and  the  building  of  individual  character. 

3.  That,  since  they  spring  from  the  synthetic  imagination  of 
finite  man,  they  will  lead  him  aright  or  astray  as  they  conform 
more  or  less  perfectly  to  the  laws  of  social  evolution. 

4.  That  by  the  application  of  the  scientific  method  to 
sociological  investigations,  these  laws  are  discoverable,  and 
ideals  in  harmony  with  them  may  be  created  for  our  guidance. 

5.  That  permanent  social  changes  can  only  be  effected  by 
convincing  the  judgments  and  enlightening  the  consciences  of 
individual  men  and  women.  The  permanent  integration  of 
societies  can  only  be  assured  by  the  uncoerced  consent  of  the 
governed. 

If  the  principles  herein  laid  down  are  sound,  reasonable,  and 
based  on  legitimate  scientific  data,  certain  helpful  inferences 
relating  to  important  problems  now  before  us  for  solution  may 
be  logically  deduced  from  them.  As  has  already  been  intimated, 
voluntary  co-operation,  instead  of  an  enforced  communistic 
regulation  and  regimentation  of  society  by  legislative  enactment, 
constitutes  the  social  and  industrial  ideal  prophetically  outlined 
by  the  study  of  the  principles  underlying  the  entire  process  of 
ethical  and  social  evolution.  The  success  of  efforts  toward  the 
attainment  of  this  ideal  will  depend  on  both  the  intelligence  and 
the  moral  attainment  of  the  individual  citizens  in  a  given 
community.  The  liberation  of  the  individual  —  his  increasing 
freedom  to  secure  the  satisfactions  consequent  upon  the  normal 
and  harmonious  exercise  of  all  his  faculties  —  will  proceed  ^9<zH 
passu  with  an  increasing  interdependence  between  individuals, 
and  between  each  and  the  social  organism.  The  processes  of 
social  differentiation  and  integration  go  on  hand  in  hand.  As 
occupations  become  more  diversified,  the  individual  acquires 
greater  skill  in  his  special  vocation;  he  produces  a  greater 
amount  of  wealth,  and  thus  contributes  more  to  the  well-being 
of  society,  as  well  as,  under  a  properly  regulated  labor-system,  to 
his  own  well-being.  Fewer  hours  are  required  for  labor  as  the 
processes  become  differentiated  and  relatively  automatic.  More 
time  may  be  given  to  individual  culture,  social  intercourse,  and 
the  service  of  the  Commonwealth  —  to  the  development,  in  short, 
of  that  fulness  of  life  which  constitutes  the  ideal  of  a  perfect 
manhood. 


20  OUR  nation's  peril 

In  wisely  serving  himself,  the  laborer  is  thus  at  the  same  time 
rendering  a  greater  service  to  society.  This,  by  a  natural 
reaction,  inures  again  to  his  ovrn  moral  and  spiritual  development. 
Egoism  is  thus  purged  of  its  excesses,  and  made  to  promote  the 
general  well-being.  In  the  proper  equilibration  of  egoistic  and 
altruistic  motives,  all  conflict  between  these  motives  ceases.  In 
wisely  serving  his  neighbor,  man  renders  the  truest  service  to 
himself,  and  vice  versa.  Thus  society  integrates  by  a  natural 
process  of  growth,  forming  a  real  Brotherhood  of  Consent, 
instead  of  a  militant  organization,  consolidated  by  external 
coercion.  The  condition  of  society  prefigured  in  this  ideal  is 
one  in  which  each  individual  shall  have  full  opportunity  for  the 
development  of  his  whole  nature,  a  direct  interest  in  the  products 
of  his  labor  commensurate  with  the  amount  of  intelligence, 
faithfulness  and  skill  which  he  puts  into  his  work,  and  to  which 
each  shall  therefore  freely  contribute  his  noblest  and  most 
conscientious  service.^ 

In  its  political  and  governmental  aspects,  this  ideal  indicates 
that  the  true  scientific  method  of  national  growth  is  by  the 
voluntary  federation  of  Commonwealths,  to  each  of  which  is 
guaranteed  local  autonomy  and  self  government,  based  on  the 
consent  of  the  governed.  This  is  the  true  American  method 
outlined  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  This  noble  ideal 
of  our  Fathers  is  utterly  opposed  to  the  Old  World  policy  of 
armed  conquest  and  the  maintenance  of  vast  Colonial  possessions 
under  military  domination.  The  government  of  an  alien  popula- 
tion by  rulers  in  whose  choice  they  have  no  part,  and  under  laws 
in  the  making  of  which  they  have  no  representation,  is  the  very 
essense  of  imperialism  —  the  very  antithesis  of  democratic- 
republicanism.  Reversion  to  that  method  in  America  or  its 
outlying  possessions  would  be  a  distinct  social  retrogression, 
indicating  a  degeneration  in  our  social  and  political  methods, 
judged  by  this  scientific  and  evolutionary  test.  It  would 
substitute  a  new  militant  ideal  in  place  of  that  conception  of  the 
just  sphere  and  basis  of  government  which  has  been  our  best 
heritage  from  the  Fathers,  and  it  would  be  only  a  question  of 
time  for  this  ideal  to  eifect  an  entire  transformation  of  our 
political  and  industrial  life  into  the  image  of  the  Old  World  insti- 

1  This  particular  phase  of  the  subject  has  been  previously  treated  by  the  writer  in 
an  article  on  "  The  Relation  of  Biology  to  Sociology,"  Popular  Science  Monthly,  June, 

1892. 


SOCIAL    IDEALS    AND    SOCIAL    PROGRESS  21 

tutions  wMch  the  Fathers  deliberately  contemned  and  rejected. 
Social  science  based  upon  the  doctrine  of  evolution  says  that  the 
Kingdom  of  God  cannot  come  by  violence.  Kevolutions,  wars, 
standing  armies,  navies  which  are  a  menace  to  other  nations,  are 
no  part  of  the  machinery  of  the  ideal  social  state:  they  are 
reversionary  survivals  of  the  method  of  brute  conflict  which 
prevails  on  the  lower  animal  plane,  and  are  justified  in  the 
imperfect  civilization  of  the  present  day  only  to  the  extent  to 
which  they  are  absolutely  necessary  for  defensive  and  police 
purposes.  Beyond  this  limit  they  are  at  once  unscientific, 
immoral  and  uneconomical. 

Instead  of  creating  new  antagonisms  in  the  world  of  thought, 
the  social  ideal  thus  outlined  and  prefigured  by  the  scientific 
method  mediates  between  apparently  antithetical  and  opposing 
systems,  and  recognizes  that  which  has  permanent  value  in  each. 
Thus,  while  it  opposes  the  method  of  Socialism  in  all  its  coercive 
and  communistic  features  —  its  tendencies  to  political  centralizar 
tion  and  government  interference  with  the  liberty  of  the 
individual;  while  its  own  appeal  is  directly  to  the  conscience 
and  intelligence  of  the  individual, —  it  nevertheless  recognizes 
the  fact  that  the  rational  end  of  all  societary  evolution  is  more 
perfect  social  integration.  As  we  approach  nearer  and  nearer  to 
an  ideal  social  state,  the  individual  will  depend  for  the  satisfaction 
of  his  wants  more  and  more  upon  the  combined  activities  of 
othernndividuals.  To  these  combined  activities,  however,  the 
contribution  of  each  will  ultimately  be  wholly  voluntary,  impelled 
by  a  conviction  that  his  own  interest  is  identical  with  that  of  the 
community  in  general.  With  this  ideal  kept  steadily  in  view, 
laws  should  be  so  adjusted  that  those  only  shall  feel  them  as  a 
burden,  restraint,  or  compulsory  incentive  to  action,  whose  aims 
are  dominantly  selfish  and  whose  actions  would  violate  the  equal 
rights  and  privileges  of  their  neighbors.  Thus  the  inner 
constraint  of  ethical  motive  will  gradually  supplant  external 
compulsion  in  the  government  of  society. 

That  the  principle  of  competition  which  has  thus  far  been  the 
mainspring  of  social  and  industrial  progress  will  ever  be  wholly 
eliminated  is  not  probable,  nor  does  it  seem  desirable.  Eationally 
regulated  and  devoted  to  just  ends,  it  will  survive  as  emulation 
to  render  the  most  skilful  and  efiicient  service  in  return  for  a  just 
and  adequate  compensation.  The  egoistic  faculties  lie  at  the 
very  foundation  of  the  vital  energies  of  society  as  well  as  of  the 


22  OUR  nation's  peril 

individual, —  of  existence  itself,  indeed,  —  and  their  rational 
exercise  and  conservation  are  therefore  essential  to  the  welfare 
of  mankind.  The  tendency  of  human  progress,  however,  will  be 
toward  a  condition  of  progressive  social  integration,  wherein  a 
due  balance  will  be  maintained  between  altruistic  and  egoistic 
activities,  and  wherein  both,  wisely  directed,  will  ultimate  in 
common  social  ends. 

While  the  higher  synthesis  of  a  social  science  based  on  the 
evolution-philosophy  thus  harmonizes  the  essential  truths  of 
individualism  and  socialism  under  the  form  of  a  Brotherhood  of 
Consent,  it  points  also  to  the  significant  fact  that  this  harmony 
can  only  be  completely  realized  by  the  submission  of  the 
individual  to  the  mandates  of  the  inexorable  moral  law.  The 
individual  liberty  involved  in  the  conception  of  a  Brotherhood 
of  Consent  is  no  unrestrained  libertinism  of  personal  action ;  it  is 
freedom  to  obey  law  —  a  freedom  only  to  do  that  which  is  right 
and  just  and  equitable.  And  the  ethical  obligations  which  are 
thus  imposed  upon  individuals  are,  by  this  conception,  also  made 
obligatory  upon  the  collective  action  of  individuals  which 
constitutes  the  State.  The  ideals  of  a  people  are  to  a  large 
degree  objectified  in  legislation  and  governmental  administration. 
The  men  to  whom  we  commit  this  sacred  trust  should  therefore 
be  of  the  highest  character  and  firmly  centered  in  the  noblest 
principles  and  ideals  of  popular  government  —  men  who  will 
listen  to  the  voice  of  principle  and  conscience  rather  than  to 
popular  clamor  and  the  demands  of  a  short-sighted  commercial 
greed;  whose  intent  purpose  will  be  to  stand  erect,  catch  the 
accents  of  divine  justice  from  above,  and  preserve  the  people's 
inheritance,  if  need  be,  even  against  the  blind  assaults  of  a 
misguided  majority,  rather  than  crouch  with  ears  to  the  ground, 
ready  to  barter  the  birthright  of  freedom  for  a  mess  of  Old  World 
imperialistic  pottage,  if  the  surging  mob-spirit,  backed  by  an 
unholy  greed  of  gain,  shall  seem  to  give  assent  to  the  mistaken 
policy. 

The  laws  of  conduct,  in  the  collective  activities  of  the  State 
no  less  than  in  the  life  of  the  individual,  are  no  mere  conventions 
of  time  and  place;  they  are  "necessary  consequences  of  the 
constitution  of  things."  They  are  seen  to  have  been  operative 
throughout  all  stages  of  moral  and  social  evolution,  even  the 
lowest.  Conditions  precedent  to  all  progress,  they  have,  by  the 
enforcement  of  their  penalties  even  upon  the  ignorant  violators 


SOCIAL    IDEALS    AND    SOCIAL    PROGRESS  23 

of  their  behests,  compelled  man  to  recognize  their  imperative 
nature,  created  in  him  a  conscience  sensitive  to  the  requirements 
of  duty,  and  thus  served  as  school-masters  to  inform  him  of  his 
obligations  as  man  and  citizen.  Since  the  laws  of  conduct  are 
seen  to  be  as  natural  and  imperative  as  the  laws  of  gravity, 
cohesion  and  chemical  affinity;  since,  like  these  laws  of  the 
physical  universe,  they  are  not  to  be  regarded  as  arbitrarily 
imposed  conditions  on  human  action,  but  rather  as  the  modes 
whereby  an  Energy  immanent  in  all  phenomena  is  manifested  in 
the  ordering  of  conduct,  the  government  of  the  Ideal  State  will 
manifestly  be  at  once  theocratic  and  democratic,  as  it  is  also  at 
once  socialistic  and  individualistic. 

In  a  Brotherhood  of  Consent,  cemented  by  the  wisely  allied 
attractive  forces  of  affection  and  self-interest,  the  individual 
members  will  thus  be  conscious  seekers  for  unity  with  the 
Infinite  Source  of  all  order,  beauty,  law  and  beneficence  —  the 
sole  Eternal  Reality  amid  the  shifting  scenes  of  this  world  of 
transitory  phenomena.  Not  by  compulsion,  but  by  a  divine 
impulsion,  must  men  and  women  be  drawn  to  this  obedience. 
They  must  be  inspired  by  the  loftiest  ideals,  led  not  by  stress  of 
duty  regarded  as  "  necessitation  to  an  end  unwillingly  adopted,'^ 
but  by  the  joy  of  willing  service,  before  the  ideal  social 
conditions  will  begin  to  be  realized  upon  the  earth. 

Afar  off  yet,  say  you,  is  this  Kingdom  of  Heaven  —  this  City 
of  the'  Light  ?  The  rising  sun  of  the  year  2000  will  hardly  be 
reflected  from  its  golden  spires  into  the  wondering  eyes  and 
grateful  hearts  of  a  glad  and  free  humanity.  Unless  we  prove 
faithful  to  the  sacred  trust  received  from  the  Fathers,  ours  in 
America  it  will  not  be  to  lead  the  world  into  this  region  of 
millennial  hopes.  When  M.  Guizot  asked  James  Russell  Lowell, 
"  How  long  will  the  American  Republic  endure  ?  "  he  received 
the  wise  and  significant  reply,  "So  long  as  the  ideas  of  its 
founders  continue  to  be  dominant."  So  long,  indeed,  and  not 
one  moment  longer.  Let  us  not  blind  our  eyes  to  the  solemn 
truth.  But  though  we  prove  recreant,  ideals  founded  in  righteous- 
ness and  love  will  not  perish.  The  flag  of  international  peace, 
spurned  by  the  American  Senate,  is  caught  up  already  by  the 
Czar  of  all  the  Russias,  and  his  word,  whatever  his  motive, 
noblest  yet  spoken  by  a  ruler  of  men,  shall  live  immortal  in  the 
pages  of  history,  and  glow  as  a  noble  ideal  among  the  stars  of 
prophecy  until  the  nations  own  the  power  and  seek  the  beneficent 


24  OUR  nation's  peril 

effulgence  of  its  light.  And  so,  if  we  scorn  the  birthright  of  the 
Fathers,  another  people  will  be  found  who  will  clasp  it  to  their 
hearts  and  lead  the  world  to  victory  under  its  banner.  Listen  to 
the  voice  of  England's  great  prophet:  "Hast  thou  considered 
how  Thought  is  stronger  than  Artillery-parks,  and  (were  it  fifty 
years  after  death  and  martyrdom,  or  two  thousand  years)  writes 
and  unwrites  Acts  of  Parliament,  removes  mountains,  models  the 
world  like  soft  clay  ?  Also,  how  the  beginning  of  all  Thought 
worthy  the  name  is  Love  ?  "  ^ 

We  have  the  truth  yet  to  learn  —  from  science  and  history,  if 
we  will;  from  hard  experience,  if  we  must  —  that  Ideals  are 
more  powerful  than  Idols,  though  they  be  cased  in  triple-plated 
steel  and  speak  destruction  from  a  thousand  brazen  throats.  We 
have  yet  to  learn,  though  it  shames  a  true  American  heart  to 
confess  it,  that  by  peaceful  federation  alone,  with  local  autonomy 
and  self-government,  can  the  brotherhood  of  nations  be  achieved 
and  the  girdle  of  civilization  be  clasped  around  the  earth.  Afar 
off  yet,  indeed,  is  this  Kingdom  of  Heaven ;  but,  be  it  far  away 
or  near  at  hand,  it  is  an  ideal  worth  hoping  for,  praying  for, 
striving  for  with  all  our  mind  and  soul  and  strength,  that  this 
generation  may  take  some  firm  and  irrevocable  steps  thitherward. 
So  doing,  it  will  live  forever  blessed  in  the  hearts  and  memories 
of  its  children  and  its  children's  children. 

1  Carlyle :  "  The  French  Revolution." 


SOCIAL    IDEALS    AND    SOCIAL    PROGRESS  25 


APPENDIX. 


I. 

AN    AMERICAN    POLICY. 

The  advocates  of  territorial  expansion  and  the  imperialistic 
propaganda  assert  that  its  opponents  have  no  definite  policy  for 
the  disposal  of  the  islands  relinquished  by  Spain,  and  ask,  in 
view  of  the  actual  results  of  the  war,  what  we  propose  to  do 
about  it  ? 

The  question  is  a  fair  one,  though,  generally  speaking,  the 
onus  of  explanation  and  the  definition  of  policies  rests  with  those 
who  propose  a  revolutionary  change  in  the  traditional  principles 
which  have  governed  us  heretofore,  rather  than  upon  those  who 
stand  by  the  old  American  doctrines.  What  the  opponents  of 
imperialism  favor  should  be  readily  inferred  from  the  statement 
of  what  they  think  ought  not  to  be  done.  Eecognizing  the 
actual^  changes  that  have  been  effected  by  the  war,  the  obvious 
obligations  of  our  government,  consistent  with  the  American 
principle  that  ^^all  just  government  rests  on  the  consent  of  the 
governed,"  would  seem  to  be : 

1.  To  carry  out  the  solemn  pledge  made  to  the  world  with 
respect  to  Cuba,  and  retain  military  possession  only  long  enough 
to  enable  the  Cubans  to  organize  a  government  of  their  own. 
This  does  not  imply  the  continuance  of  military  occupation  for 
several  years,  or  an  indefinite  period.  A  few  months,  at  most, 
should  witness  the  withdrawal  of  every  United  States  soldier, 
and  the  complete  relinquishment  of  Cuba  into  the  hands  of  its 
own  citizens.  After  that,  it  should  remain  absolutely  free  and 
independent.  We  have  no  right  to  insist  that  our  own,  or  any 
particular  form  of  government,  shall  be  adopted  by  the  Cubans, 
or  to  impose  qualifications  for  citizenship  upon  them.  The 
people  of  Cuba  should  be  left  to  work  out  their'  own  political 
salvation,  as  we  have  done,  and  as  Mexico,  Haiti,  and  the  Central 
and  South  American  Republics  are  doing.     For  this  course  we 


26  OUR  nation's  peril 

have  ample   precedent   in  our  attitude  toward  Mexico,  Haiti, 
Peru  and  Venezuela. 

2.  The  people  of  Porto  Eico  should  also  be  allowed  freely  to 
elect  whether  they  will  become  a  part  of  the  United  States,  or 
maintain  an  independent  government.  If,  as  now  seems  probable, 
they  should  prefer  to  unite  their  fortunes  with  ours,  they  should 
be  guaranteed  at  once  the  full  right  of  local  self-government, 
free  from  military  dictation,  and  territorial  representation  in  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States.  No  inhabited  territory  should 
be  acquired  by  this  government  which  cannot  be  so  treated,  and 
ultimately  be  received  into  our  family  of  States. 

3.  Our  relations  to  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  —  unless  the  latter 
should  be  received  as  a  self-governing  territory  —  should  hence- 
forth be  such  as  befit  neighboring  friendly  nations,  and  as  are 
implied  in  the  maintenance  of  the  Monroe  doctrine.  If,  at  some 
future  day,  they  should  with  reasonable  unanimity  freely  elect 
to  become  a  part  of  the  United  States,  and  we  should  deem  them 
worthy  of  complete  assimilation  into  our  body  politic,  such  a 
consummation  would  not  be  in  contradiction  with  our  professed 
principles  of  government. 

4.  Our  policy  in  the  Philippines  should  be  identical  with  that 
to  which  we  are  pledged  in  Cuba.  At  the  earliest  possible 
moment,  within  a  few  months  at  most,  we  should  withdraw  our 
army  and  leave  the  islands  in  possession  of  their  own  people, 
who  should  be  permitted  to  establish  a  government,  or  govern- 
ments, adapted  to  their  social,  religious  and  industrial  needs. 
They  should  be  free  to  work  out  their  own  political  salvation, 
with  such  treaty  guarantees  of  protection  as  may  be  necessary  to 
preserve  them  from  the  rapacity  of  the  European  powers.  In 
these  guarantees,  we  might  not  improperly  ask  the  co-operation 
of  some  of  the  European  nations. 

Under  no  circumstances  should  the  Philippines,  or  any  distant 
territory  inhabited  by  an  alien  and  semi-civilized  population,  be 
retained  as  a  permanent  colonial  possession  of  the  United 
States. 

5.  The  treaty  of  Paris  should  be  amended  so  as  to  relieve 
us  from  the  responsibility  of  assuming  even  temporary  sovereignty 
in  the  Philippines.  If  it  should  be  ratified  without  amendment, 
we  may  rightfully  ask  of  the  Philippines  the  repayment  of  the 
money  paid  to  Spain.  Such  limited  possessions  as  we  may 
require,  there  or  elsewhere,  for  coaling  stations  may  be  secured 


SOCIAL    IDEALS    AND    SOCIAL    PROGKESS  Zi 

by  treaty  stipulations,  and  should  not  involve  the  assumption  of 
sovereignty  over  the  native  population.  The  present  situation 
also  offers  opportunity  for  such  mutually  advantageous  com- 
mercial relations  in  the  Philippines  and  elsewhere  as  may  be 
secured  by  treaty,  with  due  regard  for  the  rights  of  other 
nations.  All  the  assumed  advantages  to  be  derived  from 
annexation  could  thus  be  assured  without  a  tithe  of  the  expense 
involved  in  the  maintenance  of  permanent  colonial  dependencies, 
and  without  violating  or  discarding  the  principle  that  "  all  just 
government  rests  on  the  consent  of  the  governed." 

6.  Spain  having  relinquished  all  these  possessions  as  a  result 
of  the  war,  none  of  them  should  be  returned  to  her,  or  traded  to 
other  European  powers,  without  the  free  consent  of  their  native 
inhabitants. 

Since  writing  the  above,  I  have  received  from  Hon.  Charles 
Francis  Adams  a  copy  of  his  noble  defence  of  the  policy  of  the 
Fathers,  in  his  recent  address  on  "  Imperialism  and  the  Tracks 
of  the  Forefathers,"  before  the  Lexington  Historical  Society.^ 
In  a  supplementary  letter  to  Hon.  Carl  Schurz,  printed  with  this 
address,  Mr.  Adams  outlines  an  American  policy  of  "  Hands  Off ! " 
for  Cuba,  Porto  Eico  and  the  Philippines,  quite  consistent  with 
the  plan  which  I  have  above  indicated.  The  gratitude  of  all  true 
Ameucans  is  due  to  the  great-grandson  of  John  Adams  for  so 
clearly  presenting  the  historical  aspects  of  this  problem. 

1  Published  by  Dana  Estes  &  Co.,  Boston. 


28  OUR  nation's  peril 


11. 

DANGER   SIGNALS. 

A  FEW  quotations  from  the  recent  utterances  of  prominent 
advocates  of  territorial  expansion  and  the  imperialistic  policy 
will  emphasize  and  illustrate  the  revolutionary  attitude  of  the 
new  movement,  and  the  great  peril  in  which  our  American 
experiment  of  a  ^'  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  for 
the  people  "  is  placed  by  its  advocacy.  These  utterances  need 
no  commentary. 

"  We  have  the  English  feeling  with  us.  As  I  discovered  in 
returning  from  the  tropics  they  were  very  grateful  that  we  were 
going  to  extend  our  Colonial  system,  and  they  assured  us  that 
we  could  not  let  go  of  anything  that  we  had.  A  great  many 
people  have  insisted  that  the  Constitution  forbids  it.  To  these 
I  have  said,  ^We  have  outgrown  the  Constitution.  It  is  not 
worth  while  to  discuss  it.  We  are  here,  and  we  are  here  to 
stay.' " —  Gen.  Wesley  Merritt,  at  dinner  of  the  New  England 
Society,  New  York,  Dec.  21,  1898. 

"When  questioned  regarding  the  Cubans  in  the  matter  of 
American  occupation  and  their  aspirations  regarding  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  government  of  their  own.  Admiral  Sampson  said : 
'  In  the  first  place  it  does  not  make  any  difference  whether  the 
Cubans  prove  amenable  to  the  sovereignty  of  this  Government 
or  not.  We  are  there.  We  intend  to  rule,  and  that  is  all  there 
is  of  it.'  " —  Interview  in  New  York  Times,  Dec.  24,  1898. 

Major-General  Sh after,  speaking  at  a  meeting  of  the  Young 
Men's  Club,  in  the  New  York  Avenue  Presbyterian  Church, 
Washington,  D.  C,  Jan.  11,  1899,  said  he  thought  a  military 
government  was  the  only  form  of  government  the  people  of  the 
Philippines  would  respect.  .  .  .  He  was  satisfied  there  would  be 
a  fight,  and  the  sooner  it  would  come,  he  thought,  the  better  it 
would  be  for  the  situation  generally.  "  My  plan  would  be,"  he 
said,  "  to  disarm  the  natives  in  the  Philippine  Islands,  even  if 


SOCIAL    IDEALS    AND    SOCIAL    PROGRESS  29 

we  kill  half  of  them  in  doing  it.  Then  I  would  treat  the  rest  of 
them  with  perfect  justice." — Boston  Herald  dispatch,  Jan.  12, 
1899. 

["  The  right  of  the  people  to  keep  and  bear  arms  shall  not  be 
infringed.'^ — Constitution  of  the  United  States. ~\ 

"  I  cannot  see  how  we  can  help  becoming  ultimate  owners  of 
Cuba.  Our  resolution  to  the  contrary  was  a  piece  of  sickly 
sentimentality.  We  went  to  war  on  account  of  the  'Maine,' 
and  not  for  humanity's  sake." —  Congressman  Hull,  Chairman 
of  House  Committee  on  Military  Affairs,  Aug.  13,  1898. 

"  The  Anglo-Saxon  advances  into  the  new  regions  with  a  Bible 
in  one  hand  and  a  shot-gun  in  the  other.  The  inhabitants  of 
these  regions  that  he  cannot  convert  with  the  aid  of  the  Bible 
and  bring  into  his  markets  he  gets  rid  of  with  the  shot-gun.  It 
is  but  another  demonstration  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest." — 
Congressman  Sulloway,  Nov.  22,  1898. 

"Our  declaration  relative  to  Cuba  makes  no  difference  when 
put  alongside  of  our  duties." — Congressman  J.  G.  Cannon, 
Chairman  House  Committee  on  Appropriations,  Nov.  23,  1898. 

"We  will  hold  Cuba  until  the  people  there  wake  up  to  the 
realization  that  their  greatest  security  and  prosperity  lie  in 
annexation  to  this  country." —  Senator  Morgan,  Oct.  29,  1898. 

"  The  United  States  must  hold  permanently,  not  only  Hawaii, 
but  also  Cuba,  Porto  Bico  and  the  Philippines." —  Eetired  Eear- 
Admiral  Belknap,  at  dinner  of  the  Massachusetts  Club,  Boston, 
May,  1898. 

[The  demand  of  Admiral  Belknap  was  endorsed  by  Eetired 
Eear- Admiral  Kimberly,  at  the  same  time  and  place.] 

"  We  must  govern  the  people  of  Porto  Eico  and  the  Philip- 
pines as  we  have  governed  the  American  Indians." — Senator 
Morgan,  in  published  interview. 

"We  must  hold  our  new  possessions  under  nxilitary  govern- 
ment."—  Capt.  MahaNj  Author  of  "  The  Influence  of  Sea  Power 
on  History,"  etc. 


30  OUR   nation's    PEilll. 

"  No  public  duty  is  more  urgent  than  to  resist  from  the  outset " 
any  idea  of  admitting  Hawaii,  Porto  Rico,  Cuba  or  the  Philippines 
to  the  Union. —  From  an  utterly  cold-blooded  and  un-American 
article  by  Peace  Commissioner  Whitelaw  Eeid,  in  the 
September    Century. 

Any  American  who  wishes  to  see  clearly  whither  we  are 
drifting  should  read  the  article  just  referred  to,  and  also  one  by 
Professor  John  Bach  McMaster,  in  the  December  Forum. 

In  the  latter  article,  Professor  McMaster  maintains,  in  the 
interest  of  imperialism,  that  "  foreign  soil  acquired  by  Congress 
is  the  property  of  and  not  a  part  of  the  United  States ;  that  the 
territories  formed  from  it  are  without,  and  not  under  the  Consti- 
tution ;  and  that  in  providing  them  with  governments  Congress  is 
at  liberty  to  establish  just  such  kind  as  it  pleases,  with  little  or 
no  regard  for  the  principles  of  self-government ;  .  .  .  and  that  it 
is  under  no  obligation  to  grant  even  a  restricted  suffrage  to  the 
inhabitants  of  any  new  soil  we  may  acquire,  unless  they  are  fit 
to  use  it  properly."  Of  this  fitness,  of  course,  we  and  not  they 
are  to  be  the  judges. 

These  amazing  propositions  of  the  historian  of  "the  American 
People"  {sic)  have  been  effectually  refuted  by  Mr.  Myron  E. 
Pierce,  in  a  letter  to  the  Boston  Herald,  dated  Dec.  13,  1898. 
Mr.  Pierce  shows  by  references  to  repeated  decisions  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  that  the  powers  of  Congress 
and  the  people  over  the  territories  are  limited  by  the  provisions 
of  the  Constitution  in  defence  of  the  personal  and  political 
rights  of  the  inhabitants,  as  guaranteed  in  the  States. 

Dr.  H.  H.  Powers,  professor  of  economics  in  Leland  Stanford, 
Jr.,  University,  defending  territorial  expansion,  declares  that "  It 
needs  no  prophet  to  foretell  the  end  of  the  man  or  nation  whose 
susceptibilities  are  not  the  servants  of  his  interests." 

Professor  F.  Spencer  Baldwin,  of  the  Boston  University,  who 
disclaims  being  an  expansionist  because  he  "  cannot  see  that  any 
substantial  gain  to  the  American  nation  in  particular  or  to 
mankind  in  general  is  likely  to  result  from  the  proposed  policy," 
affirms  that  the  issue  raised  by  imperialism  is  to  be  decided  by 
arguments  "based  flatly  on  the  ground  of  material  interests." 
Professor  Baldwin  further  declares  that  "The  most  of  the 
arguments  used  against  the  so-called  policy  of  imperialism  I 
regard  as  academic  and  impracticable.     An  appeal  is  made  to 


SOCIAL    IDEALS    AND    SOCIAL    PROGRESS  31 

tradition  and  the  views  of  Washington.  But  these  only  mean 
that  in  other  times  and  under  other  conditions  other  views  have 
been  held.  Moreover,  the  claims  of  its  unconstitutionality  and 
its  essential  disagreement  with  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
do  not  seem  to  me  well  taken.  As  for  the  latter,  it  at  all  events 
is  but  a  piece  of  eighteenth-century  philosophy  which  is  no 
longer  regarded  as  applicable  to  the  concrete."  "The  framers 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,"  he  says,  "were  not 
plenarily  inspired.  Their  doctrines  of  human  rights  will  not 
decide  present  problems.  .  .  .  Expansionism  cannot  be  conjured 
away  by  the  mere  flourish  of  an  ancient  parchment." —  Letter  in 
Boston  Transcript. 

The  Boston  Herald,  with  all  the  enthusiasm  of  a  recent 
convert  to  the  imperialistic  policy,  is  not  only  willing  to  throw 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  overboard;  it  also  advocates 
discarding  the  other  distinctively  American  doctrine  of  the 
separation  of  Church  and  State,  in  our  government  of  the  Philip- 
pines and  Porto  Rico.  The  inhabitants  of  these  islands  are 
accustomed  to  a  State  Church,  it  argues.  If  we  discontinue  the 
establishment  of  the  Eoman  Catholic  Church  we  shall  find  the 
government  of  the  people  much  more  difficult.  Ergo,  continue 
the  establishment.     Facilis  descensus  Averni! 

Similar  quotations  from  imperialistic  literature  could  be 
indefinitely  multiplied. 


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